I'm Okay
by TheBlackRaveness
Summary: This is about Yuna's childhood before Braska's pilgrimage, before Auron and Braska even meeting Jecht. PG-13 for domestic abuse.


Disclaimer: I don't own them…yada…yada…yada…This is just a story. Blah, blah, blah. I know most of you people hold the characters with the highest respect and everything and I do too. But I've never stumbled upon a good story where he was the bad guy.

Quietly and carefully a young girl crept down the stairs in her Bevelle home. Eyes peering at her arguing parents, she sat herself cautiously on the step her nerves twitching ready to bolt. Hugging her arms around her frail frame she listened carefully. "Please don't yell…for our little girl." The woman muttered through her tears.

"Are you telling me to be quiet? How disrespectful to your husband!" The little girl fled back up the stairs hearing a solid thump, quickly she closed and locked her bedroom door. Crawling to her dark lone corner concealed between the wall and her bed, she leaned into the worn down wall. Hugging her knees to her chest she rested her forehead on her arms, tears flowing down her face as the sounds of solid thumps and yells echoed inside the home.

Once upon a time there was a girl  
In her early years she had to learn  
How to grow up living in a war that she called home  
Never know just where to turn for shelter from the storm  
Hurt me to see the pain across my mother's face  
Every time my father's fist would put her in her place  
Hearing all the yelling I would cry up in my room  
Hoping it would be over soon

She let out a startled cry as two arms scooped her up from her sacred corner, and two spiral eyes greeted her. "Momma! Your face!" The little girl's hand traveled up to lightly touch the bruises that marred her mother's face. A lone tear ran down the elder woman's cheek as she situated herself on her daughter's bed, holding the precious child close to her. "I love you Momma." The youth's voice murmured against her chest, listening to the pitter-patter of the irregular heartbeat. She wrapped her petite arms around her mother's waist, feeling warm drips of water splashing on her skin. "Momma…don't cry. I love you."

"I love you too." She gently laid the adolescent on her back, and pulled the covers over her. "Sleep. I'll see you in the morning." She smiled weakly, and placed a gentle kiss on her daughter's forehead. 

Bruises fade father, but the pain remains the same  
And I still remember how you kept me so afraid  
Strength is my mother for all the love she gave  
Every morning that I wake I look back to yesterday  
And I'm OK

"Daddy…please no more." A barely audible voice cried out, a flash of a child in her nightgown came flying down the stairs and launched herself at her cowering mother. The dim lighting cast eerie shadows upon the whitewashed wall. Her eyes freely streamed her own tears of anguish as she watched her mother barely hold onto consciousness. "When you hurt momma, you hurt me too!" She screamed her tiny hands clutching the material of her mother's shirt. "Momma! Momma! Please be okay." She cried nuzzling her face into the older woman's flesh of her bruised neck.

"Sweetie…I'm…" A soft touch greeted the girl's back in rubbing in slow steady circles.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" She yelped and slapped away her father's hands that had beaten her mother many a night. "I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!" She began to assault his chest with her insubstantial punches. Growing weaker with each hit, until she leaned into him slapping him on the stomach, "I hate…you." Gathering her in his arms he carried her upstairs to her room. She watched with wide eyes as her father laid her delicately down on her bed and left closing the door behind him. The moving shadows of a struggling mother danced on her wall. "Please no more." She begged to the quarreling parents, her pleas not heard. Slowly her own eyes subjected to the sleep that her exhausted mind craved. 

I often wonder why I carry all this guilt  
When it's you that helped me put up all these walls I've built  
Shadows stir at night through a crack in the door  
The echo of a broken child screaming "please no more"  
Daddy, don't you understand the damage you have done  
To you it's just a memory, but for me it still lives on

She awoke to the sunlight peeking through the curtains, and gave her room a misted dream-like haze. All those nights before seemed too unreal to have happened to her and her mother. But just like every morning she knew it was real, this was her reality, her home. She arose from the comfort of her mattress and steadied herself wiping the sleep from her eyes. Gracefully she strolled out of her room and downstairs into the kitchen where she always finds her mother. The smell of scrambled Zu egg and dual horn bacon wafted from the modern kitchen and to the young girl's nose. A soft rumble erupted from her stomach as she entered the room to find her mother happily humming the Hymn of the Fayth and twirling around the room setting the table with the food. The adolescent's eyes scanned the table to only find it set for two. "Momma?" she questioned, and her mother's sparkling spiral eyes greeted her. 

"Your father went off to save Spira. He's not around any more." Her voice bubbled with excitement. "He just left." The little girl's eyes grew wide as she fled from the house in search of her father. "Baby come back!" Her mother called after her only to give up.

"Daddy!" The little girl ran to the retreating man, two sets of eyes greeted her.

"What is it sweetie?" He crouched down to receive the child in his arms.

"Don't come home." Her voice was muffled by his robes, "Mommy is so happy. Please don't come home." His grip only tightened on the little girl as a lone tear ran down his cheek.

"My Lord, we must go. If we want to meet this _Zanarkand _drunkard named Jecht. We can see your daughter later." Multicolored eyes almost glared at the other man, his eyebrows only furrowed with confusion as two russet eyes were fixated on the two.

"You're right Auron." He stood letting go of the girl, taking one last glance at his pride and joy, he turned and began to walk away. "Take care of yourself little one. I will come back to see you." She shook her head vigorously as he trudged almost somberly away from his rejoicing daughter. Her father won't be coming back. 

Bruises fade father, but the pain remains the same  
And I still remember how you kept me so, so afraid  
Strength is my mother for all the love she gave  
Every morning that I wake I look back to yesterday

"Momma! Momma!" The youth ran happily inside cradling a chickling Chocobo. "Lookie…" Her brows furrowed with a seriousness when she saw her mother's solemn gaze. "What wrong, Momma?" The chickling chirped begging for attention.

"Your father…you know how he was gone for a week." Her gaze was towards the ground, her shoulders shook in silent sobs. Three men appeared in the room. One of them was her father.

"NO! I TOLD YOU NOT TO COME HOME! MOMMA WAS HAPPIER WITHOUT YOU!" She regaled dropping the chickling to the ground and fled from the room and into her own. The sound of a door slamming shut greeted their ears.

"I…" her father started to leave the room only for his arm to be caught by his guardian's hand.

"My Lord…let her go." He let go of his summoner's arm and crossed his own bare muscular arms across his chest.

"Let me handle this." A raspy voice spoke softly as he stepped towards the door the girl only moments ago ran through.

"Upstairs the door right in front of you." The mother stated and began to busy herself with cleaning, avoiding her husband's gaze.

"I'll make everything better!" He beamed, "I have a little tyke of my own." He trotted out of sight in search of the angered youngster.

"Go away. I don't want to talk to you, unless you're momma." A stern voice called from the other side of the closed door, just as the bare chest tattooed man came within inches of the doorknob.

"Why do you hate your father so much?" He shrugged and opened up the door to find the sobbing girl curled up on her bed. "He loves you, you know."

"No he doesn't. If he loved me, he wouldn't have come home." She felt the bed sink a little, and a warm comforting hand rubbed her back, coaxing her out of her tight ball. "I hate him. He makes momma cry." She growled as the man pulled her into his lap.

"I'm Jecht." He sighed, "You know you're father is going out to bring the calm not just for Spira, but for you too. He loves you very much. I don't even know that much about him, but the way he presents himself he's a very noble man. This may be your last chance to see him…because when he goes off to beat Sin…you know he's going to…never come back again. He'll be on the farplane waiting for you. Ask the old fart Auron about it." He felt the girl nuzzle her face into his chest. "You should treasure your time with your father. I would do anything to be able to even know who mine was."

"You don't understand…" She murmured, "Daddy hurts mommy."

  
"I bet he did when he left for this pilgrimage. He loves your mommy, and I bet she was sad when he had to go." He felt frail fingers tracing the tattoo that boldly marked his chest.

"Be my daddy." She looked up to him with glimmering eyes, "You're nicer than he is. That Auron guy seems a little too stiff to be a daddy. Every time when he came over before daddy left…he never said hi to me. Are you a daddy?"

"Yes. I have a little boy back in Zanarkand. The city that never sleeps. Every night it's lit up like it's a Yevon holiday here in Bevelle. I'm a retired blitzball player. Maybe later today I'll show you my Jecht Shot! My kid is trying to follow in my footsteps. I love him to death, don't ever tell him I said that." Her eyes lit up as Jecht began to regale his stories to her happily for the next few hours.

"Jecht…" A voice called and two sets of eyes looked to the doorway.

"That's the old fart, Auron. He's a real stick in the mud." Jecht hitched a finger at him, as the little girl giggled.

"We need to get going…we'll be back tomorrow." Before the trio left Jecht proudly showed his little friend his Jecht Shot to remember him by.

It's not so easy to forget  
All the lines you left along her neck  
When I was thrown against cold stairs  
And every day I'm afraid to come home  
In fear of what I might see there

Days turned into two weeks, and the little girl's paranoia began to fade, and melt into her mother's growing happiness. They were dancing around the kitchen merrily singing a random tune when a loud knock on their Bevellian front door pulled them from their perfect world. Scurrying over to open the door, the little girl hung on her mother's arm. There stood a giant beast. "Momma?"

"That's a Ronso sweetie. How may I help you?"

"Kimahri sent to tell you Braska dead. Kimahri sent to take you to Besaid. Live happy life in calm." He glanced at the two girls and stood patiently as they reveled in their dream come true. Braska was dead.

"Come on Yuna! Let's get packing! We're going to Besaid! Away from this Yevon-forsaken home!" She stepped aside to let the Ronso in.

"But…Jecht…" Yuna sniffled and wiped her eyes, "What about his boy in Zanarkand?"

"He has a mommy. Come Yuna let's go be happy." Her mother skipped with Yuna up the stairs to pack lightly to go live in Besaid.

Bruises fade father but the pain remains the same  
And I still remember how you kept me so afraid  
Strength is my mother for all the love she gave  
Every morning that I wake I look back to yesterday  
And I'm OK  
I'm Ok

Author's Notes: I know, I know…The ending could've been better. Please don't flame me with my perception of Braska for this story. I honestly do love him! It's just, why not make him the bad guy for once? If Auron can be bad, why not Braska? XD *Naughty, naughty thoughts of Auron in a speedo* I tried to keep this to the story line…so it would blend. You know what I mean? Like, it could've happened in the game, but you just didn't know about it or something. I don't plan to write a sequel about Yuna's childhood from then on, and with what happens to her mother and everything. It just kinda leads into the game from then on. Or something. Just imagine! Be creative! n .. n I'm off to read Aurrie-Pie Madness stories! Tee-Hee I love my Auron! Please review and tell me what you think. It's my first time I made Braska the bad guy @ .. @

"I'm Ok" By Christina Aguilera


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